Page 26 of 37 FirstFirst ...
16
24
25
26
27
28
36
... LastLast
  1. #501
    No TL;DR I work hard to type

    What I see over and over in threads like this is "Oh the game is 9 years old its doing well for a 9 year old game decline is natural etc." and they're right, decline is natural, and WoW is still doing well. However, according to the graph and sub numbers released, this is not just regular decline. There are clear drops in sub numbers, and that is not just natural.

    Wrath was, thus far, the peak in subs. While some players will always leave and some will join, the massive sub loss we have seen in the past few years is incredible, and more than just a natural decline. There is something that changed, something that has caused so many players to leave. What that is, or rather what the multiple somethings are, nobody can say for sure, but to act like there is not a major force behind the sub loss is ridiculous, equal to putting your hands over your ears, shutting your eyes and making loud sounds. This is more than just a natural decline. Whatever changes there were need to be addressed, or at least pinpointed, so that they are not made again.

    First, there are changes in the gaming community. Since the end of Wrath, more and more MMOs have been released. WoW was always the big MMO in the market, and when stuff like GW2 and Rift came up, a lot of players saw the problems they had with WoW addressed, or just a new thing to try, and left. Well those MMOs went under fast, and while some players came back to WoW, others would have just stopped with MMOs. These games do still have a playerbase, and that means that those players, who enjoy MMOs, are no longer with WoW. Another change in the gaming community is just the playerbase. The current community are not those who would keep putting in a quarter to spend another couple minutes with Mrs. Pac-Man, they are the kids who scream and swear if they cannot take mid lane in League of Legends, or adults who play very casually, and no offense to some, poorly, because they just wanted to see what the heck it was their child was so into or saw a pop-up for Bubble Blaster on Facebook. Neither of these play styles meshes well with an MMO, and while WoW has tried to bend to meet them, more than half way, the MMO genre just doesnt match the current majority, and every change WoW makes to be more accepting of these people is a step away from how the MMO audience likes their game, so now WoW is some hybrid that is only appealing to part of each play style. Lastly, WoW was so successful because of the Warcraft fanbase, along with other MMO fans. Like how Elder Scrolls hopes to do, the long time fans flocked to the game, along with those from other MMOs. If Riot was to make a MMO with the minor lore they have, they would get a massive number of players because of their existing fanbase. Warcraft however, is a fairly dated RTS, a style of game somewhat on decline, thus very few players who are not already in WoW have no interest in joining WoW. Also there is a stigma about WoW, from stuff like South Park, that makes potential players much more weary of starting. These external changes have made WoW stop growing, and begin shrinking, in addition to a natural decline from people just no longer experiencing the game the way they once did. WoW has more or less stopped gaining many new players. I'll be honest, if I was some teenager and saw the Mists of Pandaria commercial, I would have been turned off by the Panda thing, then the fact that WoW has always been seen as the hive of all nerds and basement dwellers, I would do anything but want to buy it. Blizzard just doesnt have the appeal to the current audiences they once did, for a variety of reasons, and that means we just arent gaining subs.

    In the game itself however, is where the source of most of the sub loss would be found. Since the day the servers went live, there have always been complaints, and people who quit because of something they dont like. I'm sure anybody who has been to the forums, here or heck even trade chat in the past 10 years could rattle off the common complaints.
    -caters to casuals
    -caters to hardcore
    -stuff is easy
    -stuff is hard
    -pvp is unbalanced
    -community sucks

    and from each of these spout a couple other complaints, like WPvP is unbalanced for PvE gear, or players upset that LFR doesnt drop heirlooms. But these complains have always existed since the start, because nothing will please everybody. The issue is, somewhere a long the way, Blizzard made changes that threw the balance off too much, and got many players to leave. Somewhere along the line, there were changes that made so many players feel so greatly about one of the overreaching issues that they quit. Blizzard knows it, the playerbase knows it, everybody realizes that some changes just managed to make a lot leave. A common one that people mention were the Cataclysm heroics at launch. Some people have argued that they were fine and Blizzard nerfing them was just giving in to casuals, and there were some who quit because they were nerfed There were also players who found them to be far too hard, Blizzard listening to hardcore players, and quit because they were difficult. Blizzard quite clearly managed to miss the mark, and instead of finding the right difficulty to keep both audiences engaged and playing, went too far in one direction, then jumped in the opposite one. Players more often than not do not resub, while there are those who do there are many more who will not.

    Blizzard will not talk about these issues. They will occasionaly have, or had, Ghostcrawler or somebody say "we like how it is," or "we are looking at some changes in the future". I understand fully how stressful it is for Blizzard employees to have to talk to people, since most of us will, as Ghostcrawler pointed out, have a bias we refuse to see past. But releasing vague statements on major complaints is not helping either side, especially those who have the complaint in the first place. I am disappointed to see the ridiculousness of the Q&A at Blizzcon, where half the time people were asking offtopic questions while the devs were actually willing to answer. Is there a fix for everything? No. Is everything that has a complaint broken or in need of change? Probably not. But the fact that these changes end up with players leaving, and are rarely discussed in depth is just not helping the game.

    Lastly, I do think Blizzard has become somewhat detached. While it is partially the playerbase, when was the last time Blizzard added in those little things that everybody loved? Like that ogre Lard who doesnt turn when you talk to him. I mean, as annoying as it is, the community hasnt had a good joke since BOOOOONNNNNEEEEESTTTTOOORRRMMMMM, aside from maybe the BWD elevator boss.

    I think it would be beneficial for the developers to talk more to the playerbase. Give opposing views to peoples complaints. Currently they are ignoring many heated issues, instead trying to distract players with other stuff. Why is it a developer cannot tell the people who are complaining about a lack of worgen paladins Blizzards view on it, and actually have a discussion? The forums are a terrible location for any sort of real conversation, filled with more up/down abuse that Reddit (IE I disagree, so I report and downvote vs I disagree, but he isnt just being obnoxious/insulting/trolling, so I wont vote at all) as well as the barrage of posts are hard to reply to. I think it would be beneficial for the developers to have more Q&A with small groups of players to actually talk about topics, not just give a quick response and dismissal. Whatever they are doing isn't working, and whatever changes they are making are major enough to push away players. Maybe it is just the last straw for some, like those on small servers not being merged right away, but Blizzard is just not listening to the playerbase, nor is the playerbase listening to eachother. Buzzwords fill every forum you can find, along with offtopic bull, and rarely will a blue post. I dont expect every "GIVE GNOME DRUIDS" thread to get a response, but I do think the devs need to talk to players more, instead of making quick changes to shut people up and hoping it wasnt too big to scare off subs.

    There is natural decline, but this is not natural decline. There are multiple reasons people are leaving, and ignoring them is not a solution.

  2. #502
    Quote Originally Posted by igniter View Post
    I have a "sub". I login once a week, for an hour or two at most. A common monthly income is between 1800-2000 yuan in China, and a 4000 min card is 28 yuan. It's really dirt cheap. When I see Chinese "sub" numbers I divide it by 3.

    Where is this 4 dollars average per month coming from? Please cite your source(s).
    Yaaawn, You log in at 2 hours a week.. "at most". Yeah sure, that's the average for a WoW player ...

    LOL. you are as much Chinese as I am Napoloen.

    I have some friends over there and mostly they play on Taiwan servers ( if they are rich) or they pay around 3-4 dollars in local currency for the Chinese NetEase version.

    But of course, they don't "play" for one hour a week like you pretend to be doing.

    And of course ... ALL the rest of the garbage offered is free to play. It helps explaining why WoW suffered.

    It is very hard to beat free to play or cracked software even if the offered things are garbage.


    --- A Chinese guy who would play for just 3 hours per day spends MORE than 2 time cards per month on his hobby.

    That's more than 3% of his monthly salary...

    Compared to someone who gains 1500 dollars in the west, that's the equivalent of 45 dollars just to play WoW daily as a medium/hardcore player.

    Equivalent, but it simply shows how hard it is to sell WoW as a sub based game over there.

    I don't think many western players would want to pay ... 45 dollars per month to keep playing WoW at 3 hours a day.

    And how odd ... when my friends said you can compare it with 3-4 dollars a month, as ... when you divide the 3 hours a day by ... 3... you would end up with the EXACT amount they mentioned.


    ------

    tldr: For a Chinese player playing an average of just ONE hour a day, it costs around the same % of his monthly salary as a western player...

    Everything more than one hour WoW a day, and the Chinese guy is paying relatively MORE, compared to his monthly income.
    Last edited by BenBos; 2013-11-29 at 11:30 PM.

  3. #503
    No wonder Ghostcrawler was forced to leave. Good decision, Blizzard

  4. #504
    Quote Originally Posted by Giscoicus View Post
    No TL;DR I work hard to type

    What I see over and over in threads like this is "Oh the game is 9 years old its doing well for a 9 year old game decline is natural etc." and they're right, decline is natural, and WoW is still doing well. However, according to the graph and sub numbers released, this is not just regular decline. There are clear drops in sub numbers, and that is not just natural.

    Wrath was, thus far, the peak in subs. While some players will always leave and some will join, the massive sub loss we have seen in the past few years is incredible, and more than just a natural decline. There is something that changed, something that has caused so many players to leave. What that is, or rather what the multiple somethings are, nobody can say for sure, but to act like there is not a major force behind the sub loss is ridiculous, equal to putting your hands over your ears, shutting your eyes and making loud sounds. This is more than just a natural decline. Whatever changes there were need to be addressed, or at least pinpointed, so that they are not made again.

    First, there are changes in the gaming community. Since the end of Wrath, more and more MMOs have been released. WoW was always the big MMO in the market, and when stuff like GW2 and Rift came up, a lot of players saw the problems they had with WoW addressed, or just a new thing to try, and left. Well those MMOs went under fast, and while some players came back to WoW, others would have just stopped with MMOs. These games do still have a playerbase, and that means that those players, who enjoy MMOs, are no longer with WoW. Another change in the gaming community is just the playerbase. The current community are not those who would keep putting in a quarter to spend another couple minutes with Mrs. Pac-Man, they are the kids who scream and swear if they cannot take mid lane in League of Legends, or adults who play very casually, and no offense to some, poorly, because they just wanted to see what the heck it was their child was so into or saw a pop-up for Bubble Blaster on Facebook. Neither of these play styles meshes well with an MMO, and while WoW has tried to bend to meet them, more than half way, the MMO genre just doesnt match the current majority, and every change WoW makes to be more accepting of these people is a step away from how the MMO audience likes their game, so now WoW is some hybrid that is only appealing to part of each play style. Lastly, WoW was so successful because of the Warcraft fanbase, along with other MMO fans. Like how Elder Scrolls hopes to do, the long time fans flocked to the game, along with those from other MMOs. If Riot was to make a MMO with the minor lore they have, they would get a massive number of players because of their existing fanbase. Warcraft however, is a fairly dated RTS, a style of game somewhat on decline, thus very few players who are not already in WoW have no interest in joining WoW. Also there is a stigma about WoW, from stuff like South Park, that makes potential players much more weary of starting. These external changes have made WoW stop growing, and begin shrinking, in addition to a natural decline from people just no longer experiencing the game the way they once did. WoW has more or less stopped gaining many new players. I'll be honest, if I was some teenager and saw the Mists of Pandaria commercial, I would have been turned off by the Panda thing, then the fact that WoW has always been seen as the hive of all nerds and basement dwellers, I would do anything but want to buy it. Blizzard just doesnt have the appeal to the current audiences they once did, for a variety of reasons, and that means we just arent gaining subs.

    In the game itself however, is where the source of most of the sub loss would be found. Since the day the servers went live, there have always been complaints, and people who quit because of something they dont like. I'm sure anybody who has been to the forums, here or heck even trade chat in the past 10 years could rattle off the common complaints.
    -caters to casuals
    -caters to hardcore
    -stuff is easy
    -stuff is hard
    -pvp is unbalanced
    -community sucks

    and from each of these spout a couple other complaints, like WPvP is unbalanced for PvE gear, or players upset that LFR doesnt drop heirlooms. But these complains have always existed since the start, because nothing will please everybody. The issue is, somewhere a long the way, Blizzard made changes that threw the balance off too much, and got many players to leave. Somewhere along the line, there were changes that made so many players feel so greatly about one of the overreaching issues that they quit. Blizzard knows it, the playerbase knows it, everybody realizes that some changes just managed to make a lot leave. A common one that people mention were the Cataclysm heroics at launch. Some people have argued that they were fine and Blizzard nerfing them was just giving in to casuals, and there were some who quit because they were nerfed There were also players who found them to be far too hard, Blizzard listening to hardcore players, and quit because they were difficult. Blizzard quite clearly managed to miss the mark, and instead of finding the right difficulty to keep both audiences engaged and playing, went too far in one direction, then jumped in the opposite one. Players more often than not do not resub, while there are those who do there are many more who will not.

    Blizzard will not talk about these issues. They will occasionaly have, or had, Ghostcrawler or somebody say "we like how it is," or "we are looking at some changes in the future". I understand fully how stressful it is for Blizzard employees to have to talk to people, since most of us will, as Ghostcrawler pointed out, have a bias we refuse to see past. But releasing vague statements on major complaints is not helping either side, especially those who have the complaint in the first place. I am disappointed to see the ridiculousness of the Q&A at Blizzcon, where half the time people were asking offtopic questions while the devs were actually willing to answer. Is there a fix for everything? No. Is everything that has a complaint broken or in need of change? Probably not. But the fact that these changes end up with players leaving, and are rarely discussed in depth is just not helping the game.

    Lastly, I do think Blizzard has become somewhat detached. While it is partially the playerbase, when was the last time Blizzard added in those little things that everybody loved? Like that ogre Lard who doesnt turn when you talk to him. I mean, as annoying as it is, the community hasnt had a good joke since BOOOOONNNNNEEEEESTTTTOOORRRMMMMM, aside from maybe the BWD elevator boss.

    I think it would be beneficial for the developers to talk more to the playerbase. Give opposing views to peoples complaints. Currently they are ignoring many heated issues, instead trying to distract players with other stuff. Why is it a developer cannot tell the people who are complaining about a lack of worgen paladins Blizzards view on it, and actually have a discussion? The forums are a terrible location for any sort of real conversation, filled with more up/down abuse that Reddit (IE I disagree, so I report and downvote vs I disagree, but he isnt just being obnoxious/insulting/trolling, so I wont vote at all) as well as the barrage of posts are hard to reply to. I think it would be beneficial for the developers to have more Q&A with small groups of players to actually talk about topics, not just give a quick response and dismissal. Whatever they are doing isn't working, and whatever changes they are making are major enough to push away players. Maybe it is just the last straw for some, like those on small servers not being merged right away, but Blizzard is just not listening to the playerbase, nor is the playerbase listening to eachother. Buzzwords fill every forum you can find, along with offtopic bull, and rarely will a blue post. I dont expect every "GIVE GNOME DRUIDS" thread to get a response, but I do think the devs need to talk to players more, instead of making quick changes to shut people up and hoping it wasnt too big to scare off subs.

    There is natural decline, but this is not natural decline. There are multiple reasons people are leaving, and ignoring them is not a solution.
    Typical blinded fan talk.

    Dear Sir, since 2010, all other western MMORPG's went from subscription based to FREE TO PLAY (except WoW and the smaller EVE)

    It is very difficult to compete with "free to play". Certainly for recruiting new players. The last sub based one FF revisted, crashed with 70 % loss in activity in hardly 3 months after launch... Go figure.

    ----

    Go on now ... with the blabla. And just be sure that ALL upcoming mmorpg's will see the same faith as ALL previous mmorpg's : player drops of 80% in LESS than one year, now THAT is what I call a decline ...

    Not 35% over 3 years time in a 9 year old game where EVERYTHING else went free to play in order to NOT shut down the servers.
    Last edited by BenBos; 2013-11-29 at 11:46 PM.

  5. #505
    Quote Originally Posted by BenBos View Post
    Typical blinded fan talk.

    Dear Sir, since 2010, all other western MMORPG's went from subscription based to FREE TO PLAY (except WoW and the smaller EVE)

    It is very difficult to compete with "free to play". Certainly for recruiting new players. The last sub based one FF revisted, crashed with 70 % loss in activity in hardly 3 months after launch... Go figure.

    Go on now ... with the blabla.
    Typical tldr troll.


    Giscoicus, that was actually a well put together observation towards the current state of Blizzard and their handle on WoW currently. I strongly agree with the notes about some little changes happened somewhere that suddenly started driving players away in droves. I know I for one stopped playing in Cataclysm with 4.2 and the gutting of solarcleave. I came back to the game and tried it again during the summer, but with my warlock (after having played a druid as a main since Vanilla beta in early '04), and with the KJC and MF change in 5.4 I left again, being able to do something while moving was fun, once I got a taste of that the game was plainly not fun without it. The change to KJC was the worst, it was such a huge drop in QoL that it was almost physically repulsive to play.

    WoW really peaked on how fun it was back in early Cata for me, when I came back for a few months in MoP and played my lock during 5.3 I almost got back to the same level of fun. I really just can't justify the time or money on the game when I know that it isn't as fun as it used to be. With Cata WoW started going backwards, instead of adding stuff into the game, there became a tug of war between adding and removing. For whatever reason devs were saying, "Ok, you can have these things, but only if we can remove these things from the game." I think this mindset that they have about the game can only have a set limit of options and features, and in order to add something in they have to remove something else, otherwise players might get "confused", is probably the most toxic thing currently in the game.
    What are you willing to sacrifice?

  6. #506
    Games age, i think its normal. Old players will leave or become less active, wow needs fresh blood

    Honestly though, why do you think classic was so popular? Definitely not because of raiding, as only 1% did raiding. Most people enjoyed leveling, doing 5man dungeons with friends, etc. Blizzard is thinking about new players in terms of people who want to rush through the game as fast as possible, giving them gear quickly.

    WoW is very bad right now for new players, you either do easy, braindead questing where you kill mobs way too quickly, or go into dungeons that are facerolled by everybody and probably goes way too fast for you, you don't ever experience the content, just rush through it. Blizzard keeps lowering experience requirements, they're adding instant 90s for the next expansion... Each new tier, they add ways to powergear through the previous one, effectively burning out new players very quickly, and rendering the previous content they made useless.

    The game during leveling is just too easy, too braindead. Not saying that not knowing where to level was great, although it made you explore more.. but being scared of higher level mobs, not wanting to pull more than one mob at a time, and 5mans making you wipe if you didn't respect the dps/tank/healer traditional 5man group kept the game dangerous and interesting, as frustrating as some pugs might have been.

    Blizzard really needs to make the leveling game more interesting if they want fresh blood. My friend just bought WoW 2 months ago, his first complaint was that the game was too easy, but he seems to enjoy pet battles as he was a huge pokemon nerd back in highschool. It's just one guy, but I really feel like his comment hit the spot.

  7. #507
    Quote Originally Posted by Sharuko View Post
    This is an extremely valid point. Most MMOs don't have the same amount of players 1 month after launch compared to launch. Most start strong during the first month and decline from there. WoW has held strong for almost 10 years. If it is 6 million subscribers end of next year I would be shocked.
    Assuming they backtrack on the no-flying thing (which I think could cause them some serious nerdrage), they will likely gain quite a few subs during WoD. The flex-raid system will lure many people back. "Sure, we can take you now, just hop in."

    I'll be carrying some friends next expansion but will be good times.

  8. #508
    The Unstoppable Force Granyala's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Arkon-III
    Posts
    20,131
    Quote Originally Posted by Giscoicus
    There is natural decline, but this is not natural decline. There are multiple reasons people are leaving, and ignoring them is not a solution.
    Interesting thoughts.
    IMHO the shift back to a higher difficulty after easy Wrath scared a lot of people away.
    MoP continued that trend, coupled with a controversial Asian theme.

    It remains to be seen if WoD with flex and a more "Warcrafty" storyline can attract new folks/bring old ones back, but I doubt it.
    There is just too many other stuff out there, the playerbase is fracturing more and more with every new release that finds its own fanbase.

    There won't be one giant in the future. There will be a lot of smaller games, each with a loyal audience.

  9. #509
    I wonder what Blizzards operating costs are. I cant imagine more than 10 mil a month and probably closer to 3 mil a month. So wow needs to retain what 1 mil players to be profitable?

    I can see WOW going full LOL and just selling out completely, gear/mounts all available in the blizzard store. Its a shame, but thats how gaming companies are operating now, selling half made products and then charging you to finish them. Its gaming extortion.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Granyala View Post
    Interesting thoughts.
    IMHO the shift back to a higher difficulty after easy Wrath scared a lot of people away.
    MoP continued that trend, coupled with a controversial Asian theme.

    It remains to be seen if WoD with flex and a more "Warcrafty" storyline can attract new folks/bring old ones back, but I doubt it.
    There is just too many other stuff out there, the playerbase is fracturing more and more with every new release that finds its own fanbase.

    There won't be one giant in the future. There will be a lot of smaller games, each with a loyal audience.
    halls of lightning, halls of stone, utgarde pinnacle were as hard as any heroic in Cata.


    What mists really lacked was a catch up 5 man for 5.3 and 5.4. That would keep the casuals at bay and at least provide some actual gear for people to do lfr with.

  10. #510
    "This is not normal"
    No, it's not, it's insanely good for a game this old that has a sub fee attached to it, WOW is still popular than pretty much every F2P MMO out there.

  11. #511
    High Overlord Voldur's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Buenos Aires, Argentina
    Posts
    148
    I will resume it in four words: nine years old game.

  12. #512
    Oh no it ain't bad at all. But that isn't the point. Stop comparing it to other games. The game could have more subs and this shows that something is wrong/people are moving on.

  13. #513
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by igniter View Post
    I have a "sub". I login once a week, for an hour or two at most. A common monthly income is between 1800-2000 yuan in China, and a 4000 min card is 28 yuan. It's really dirt cheap. When I see Chinese "sub" numbers I divide it by 3.

    Where is this 4 dollars average per month coming from? Please cite your source(s).
    Thought it was 30 RMB for 4000 minutes? Did they lower the price?

  14. #514
    What were sub numbers 9 years in for UA, EQ, Asheron's Call, DaoC, and RuneScape?

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Lemp View Post
    Oh no it ain't bad at all. But that isn't the point. Stop comparing it to other games. The game could have more subs and this shows that something is wrong/people are moving on.
    Yes, because there are so many examples of MMOs not losing subs over time. I mean, just look at all the other MMOs with more than 7 million subs. It's easy...

  15. #515
    Quote Originally Posted by Lemp View Post
    Oh no it ain't bad at all. But that isn't the point. Stop comparing it to other games. The game could have more subs and this shows that something is wrong/people are moving on.
    GC is kicked out and the worst (pandas) is behind us. The game still has life and will see better days.

    I expect WoD subs to increase from anemic MOP levels.

  16. #516
    Quote Originally Posted by oathy View Post
    that graph shows the reason GC should have left before MOP.
    CATA really was wow Jumping the shark they did amazing job in revamping the old world but the entire thing was more focused on trying to attract new players
    and that didn't happen it lost and lost quickly. MOP had a massive task trying to repair some of the damage I don't think they had any choice but to bring back 10 levels to try and bring back the older Expansion feel of you really do have a new Game not a patch. Both CATA and MOP are showing huge declines very shortly after launches,
    BC and WOLK shows gains Q4 results for 2013 I do believe will show the reason GC left.
    Better late than never.

    GC was shown the door at last.

    I expect a clear increase in game quality and also in subs.

    It is ironic the game is going back to outlands right when GC is leaving the game.

  17. #517
    Legendary!
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Not in Europe Anymore Yay
    Posts
    6,931
    Quote Originally Posted by Ghier View Post
    I'm sure they are telling their investors that right?

    Blizzard: Don't worry guys. It's normal for the game that is the backbone of our company to lose 30% of it's customers in 1 year.
    Stockholders: Well i'm getting the hell out then!

    I would bet they are losing sleep over it. I would also bet that it is a big reason GC is leaving.
    Actually yeah I'm pretty sure they are telling their investors that. Because it's the natural life cycle of an MMO. Look at every successful MMO that came before WoW. Note I said before WoW, not talking about the lulzy cash grab live for 2 months and then get shut down MMOs that came after WoW's popularity. They're popular, then they peak, then they lose subs, then they stabilize (Which WoW may or may not have. Need more than one somewhat stable quarter to tell.) and then they remain stable for several years afterwards while still making a profit.

    There is literally nothing that Blizzard can do to get a huge sub increase and maintain it. That's what the fanboys, haters, and investors need to realize. At this point it's much easier for someone to get out of WoW than to get into it. The game, while more user friendly and convenient than it used to be, is less social and it's actually quite difficult for a new WoW player to get into WoW and stay into it. Much harder than it is for a current WoW player to get bored and quit. That happens when a game like this ages.

    The closest they could come to making it appear that WoW has as many players as it used to, is if they went F2P and pointed out the temporary player bump, but in the long run they'd lose revenue. Whether you like WoW or hate WoW, you just have to accept that at this point the sub number has dropped way off and it's not coming back up significantly for any large chunk of time no matter the quality of the product. Just not happening.

    I'm in agreement with you that acknowledging the sub drop is bad isn't claiming the end of WoW is near or whatever, but there isn't any point in dwelling on the sub drop. Subs dropped when Blizzard catered to players that wanted more of a challenge, subs dropped when Blizzard made the game easier and gave nice things to everyone. Subs obviously were just going to drop no matter what Blizzard did. Also it's worth noting again that for every single quarter with a significant sub drop it was pointed out (and it's legally required that this information be accurate) that the majority of the sub loss was in a different and much more fiercely competitive region.

  18. #518
    Now that GC is out, can we now have WoW back from the Pokemon crowd?

    I'm an old timer who had quit MOP and resubbed to prepare for WoD after blizzcon.

    I really want my game back with heroic heroics, long quest chains, large raids and less faceroll.

  19. #519
    I am Murloc! Conscious's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    South Boston, MA.
    Posts
    5,652
    Quote Originally Posted by scarson View Post
    Better late than never.

    GC was shown the door at last.

    I expect a clear increase in game quality and also in subs.

    It is ironic the game is going back to outlands right when GC is leaving the game.
    Here's to hoping it at least helps.

    I'm imagining however, the subscription numbers will probably keep decreasing, as unfortunately the game's been lead down quite the slope and we probably won't be able to stop it.

  20. #520
    Quote Originally Posted by Conscious View Post
    Here's to hoping it at least helps.

    I'm imagining however, the subscription numbers will probably keep decreasing, as unfortunately the game's been lead down quite the slope and we probably won't be able to stop it.
    I have one last hope now that there are clear and obvious changes going on with Orcs, Draenor, less LFR and bigger raids, no more GC and so on.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •